Kut

Kut ٱلْكُوت
City
Kut Location Iraq
Coordinates: 32°30′20″N 45°49′29″E / 32.50556°N 45.82472°E / 32.50556; 45.82472
Country	Iraq
Governorate	Wasit
Elevation	23 m (75 ft)
Population  (2019)[1]
• Total	315,162

Kūt (

the estimated population is about 389,400 people. It is the capital of the province long known as Al Kut, but since the 1960s renamed Wasit.

The old town of Kut is within a sharp "U" bend of the river, opposite from the point where the

, is located near Kut.

The Kut Barrage was constructed in the city in the 1930s to provide irrigation water for the surrounding area. The barrage supports a road and includes a lock for boats passing up and down the Tigris. Its purpose is to maintain a sufficiently high water level in the Tigris to provide water for the Gharraf irrigation canal.

In 1952, 26,440 hectares (65,300 acres) were irrigated from water provided by the Gharraf Canal. Of this newly reclaimed land, 14,080 hectares (34,800 acres) was distributed to small farmers as part of a social land reform program. These farmers received 10 hectares (25 acres) per family and were required to live on the land they farmed. In 2005, repairs and maintenance works were carried out at the Kut Barrage and the Gharraf Head Regulator for a total cost of US$3 million.

In 2021, a major car crash occurred inside the city in a travel route from Amarah (a neighboring city) to Baghdad, causing fatalities. The local hospital was reportedly ill-equipped to deal with the incident and could not air-lift victims back to Amarah for treatment and the large hospitals there, resulting in 5 casualties. The driver was pronounced dead from major injuries 4 days afterwoods, the incident rocked the town.

Geography

Climate

Kut has a

. Most rain falls in the winter. The average annual temperature in Kut is 23.4 °C (74.1 °F). About 138 mm (5.43 in) of precipitation falls annually.

History

The medieval city of Madharaya was at the site of modern Kut.^[3][2][4] It lay at the point where the Nahrawan Canal flowed out into the Tigris.^[2] Madharaya has been identified as the hometown of the Sasanian-era Zoroastrian religious leader Mazdak.^[5] By the early 1200s, however, Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote that Madharaya was in ruins.^[3]

Modern Kut owes much of its prosperity to the advent of steamboat transportation on the Tigris in the 1800s.^[2]

World War I

Townshend, Khalil Pasha

and other unidentified officers after surrender of the Kut garrison in 1916

Kut was the scene of a fierce battle during

forces from the town.

After a halt of nearly nine months, Townshend then headed up river to

Frederick Stanley Maude

and with steep casualties retook Kut on February 23, 1917.

Kut suffered heavy damage during the First World War, and was almost entirely rebuilt afterward.[2]

Contingency Operating Base Delta (COB Delta)

In the early 21st century, the Contingency Operating Base (COB) Delta was an American military installation located on the right bank of the Tigris southwest from Kut. Designated as a

During the Operation Iraqi Freedom, FOB Delta was manned by Polish, Kazakhstan, El Salvadorian, Georgian, Lithuanian, British, and US Multi-National Forces. Sometime after 2009 the FOB was re-designated as a COB.^[7] COB Delta was closed on October 24, 2011 and officially turned over to the IAF in a handover ceremony that afternoon in the main flight line hangar/terminal. Later that evening, approximately 2,200, the last Force Pro civilians flew out by helicopter.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Anglo-Iraqi War
• List of places in Iraq
• List of United States Military installations in Iraq

References

Sources

• Le Strange, Guy (1905). The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia, from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  OCLC 458169031
  .
• Madelung, Wilferd (1988). Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran. Albany: Bibliotheca Persica.
  ISBN 0-88706-701-8
  .
• [1]

External links

Media related to Al Kut at Wikimedia Commons

• Iraq Image - Al Kut Satellite Observation